As Introduced

136th General Assembly

Regular Session H. R. No. 211

2025-2026

Representatives Rader, Abdullahi

Cosponsors: Representatives Somani, Lett, Rogers, Grim, Synenberg, Piccolantonio, Sigrist, Miller, J., Sweeney, Brownlee, Brewer, McNally

A R E S O L U T I O N

To call on legislators at the state and federal level and other communities and jurisdictions to support an amendment to the United States Constitution that would abolish corporate personhood and the doctrine of money as speech.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

WHEREAS, Government of, by, and for the people has long been a cherished American value, and We the People's inalienable right of self-government is guaranteed in the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence; and

WHEREAS, Free and fair elections are essential to democracy and effective self-governance; and

WHEREAS, Persons are rightfully recognized as human beings whose essential needs include clean water and safe and secure food; and

WHEREAS, Corporations are entirely human-made legal entities created by express permission of We the People and our government; and

WHEREAS, Corporations can exist in perpetuity, can exist simultaneously in many nations, need only profit for survival, and exist solely through the legal charter imposed by the government of We the People; and

WHEREAS, The great wealth of large corporations allows them to wield coercive force of law to overpower human beings and communities, thus denying We the People's exercise of our constitutional rights; and

WHEREAS, Corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution, and We the People have never granted constitutional rights to corporations, nor have we decreed that corporations have authority that exceeds the authority of We the People of the United States; and

WHEREAS, Interpretation of the United States Constitution by appointed Supreme Court justices to include corporations in the term "persons" has long denied We the People's exercise of self-governance by endowing corporations with constitutional protections intended for We the People; and

WHEREAS, The judicial bestowal of civil and political rights upon corporations can usurp basic human and constitutional rights guaranteed to human persons, and also empowers corporations to sue municipal and state governments for adopting laws that violate "corporate rights," even when those laws serve to protect and defend the rights of human persons and communities; and

WHEREAS, Corporations are not and never have been human beings, and therefore are rightfully subservient to human beings and governments as our legal creations; and

WHEREAS, The recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), which rolled back the legal limits on spending in the electoral process, creates an unequal playing field and allows unlimited spending by wealthy individuals, corporations, and other entities to influence elections, candidate selection, and policy decisions and to sway votes and compels elected officials to divert their attention from the People's business or even to vote against the interest of their human constituents in order to ensure competitive campaign funds for their own re-election; and

WHEREAS, The judicial interpretation that construes spending money in political campaigns as speech is contrary to the notion of one person, one vote and allows those with the most money to have an unfair advantage in a political system that should ensure that all citizens have equal access to the political process and an equal ability to influence the outcome of elections; and

WHEREAS, Money is property, not speech; and

WHEREAS, Large corporations own most of America's mass media and use that media as a megaphone to express loudly their political agenda and to convince Americans that their primary role is that of consumers, rather than sovereign citizens with rights and responsibilities within our democracy; and

WHEREAS, Tens of thousands of people and municipalities across the nation are joining with the Move to Amend campaign to call for an amendment to the United States Constitution to abolish corporate personhood and the doctrine of money as speech; now therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio calls on legislators at the state and federal levels to join the tens of thousands of citizens, grassroots organizations, and local governments across the country in the Move to Amend campaign to call for an amendment to the United States Constitution to abolish corporate personhood and the doctrine of money as speech and thereby return our democracy, our elections, and our communities to America's human persons and thus claim our sovereign right of self-governance; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio calls on other communities and jurisdictions to join with it in this action by adopting similar resolutions; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the State of Ohio supports education to increase public awareness of the threats to our democracy posed by corporate personhood and encourages lively discussion to build understanding and consensus to take appropriate community and municipal actions to democratically respond to these threats; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the House of Representatives transmit duly authenticated copies of this resolution to the President of the Senate of the State of Ohio and to Ohio's congressional delegation.